BAY AREA / Some AC Transit buses to offer Wi-Fi service / Wireless Internet on crossbay routes to S.F., Peninsula

Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, August 24, 2006

AC Transit is set to become the first public bus system in Northern California, and one of a handful nationwide, to offer free wireless Internet service -- a potential tool to increase ridership in the tech-savvy Bay Area.

"Folks will be able to surf to work and back," said Aram Boyd, senior marketing representative for AC Transit.

The agency plans to provide Wi-Fi access on the crossbay routes that link the East Bay to San Francisco and the Peninsula. Testing is scheduled to begin next week, with the goal to have service running by midfall, Boyd said.

A few local transit agencies either already provide Wi-Fi service or are planning for it, including Caltrain, the Altamont Commuter Express and some ferries. It is available on public buses in Seattle, Riverside in Southern California, Cincinnati, Tampa and Cedar Rapids.

Part of the challenge for AC Transit will be to provide uninterrupted service on vehicles moving through varied terrain and maintaining a connection fast enough to keep users' nerves from frazzling.

LATEST SFGATE VIDEOS

The wireless capability will be available on AC Transit's 79 MCI-manufactured buses that cross the Dumbarton, San Mateo and Bay Bridge spans. Passengers using their specially equipped laptops, personal digital assistants and MP3 players will be able to send and receive e-mail and use the Internet.

AC Transit administrators view the program, which is funded with $340,000 in state transportation funds, as an opportunity to "provide a significant competitive advantage over auto travel and BART usage, neither of which allows for Internet connection and use," according to a briefing memo prepared for AC Transit's board of directors.

BART has entered into preliminary discussions with potential vendors to provide Internet service on its trains, but there are no concrete plans to move forward, said Jim Allison, a BART spokesman.

"For the time being, we're concentrating on cell phone service in the Transbay Tube," he said.

San Francisco's Municipal Railway, the largest public transit operator in the region, has no plans at this time to provide wireless Internet on its fleet of street cars, buses, trolleys and cable cars, according to agency spokeswoman Maggie Lynch. "It's not at the top of our list," she said.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, which operates in San Jose and surrounding communities, doesn't have Wi-Fi available yet, but is working to outfit its light-rail trains. "We're not doing anything specifically with our buses right now," said VTA spokeswoman Jayme Kunz.

The same goes for Golden Gate Transit buses. Mary Currie, spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, said wireless Internet has been available on the ferries for the past six months as part of a demonstration project. Glitches, such as a dead spot near Angel Island, are still being worked out, she said, as is the ultimate business relationship with the vendor.

SamTrans buses don't have Wi-Fi service, "but that doesn't mean we won't someday," said agency spokesman, Jonah Weinberg. Its sister rail operation, Caltrain, is planning to provide high-speed Internet service, but full coverage is still a year or so away, Weinberg said.

Other rail systems serving the Bay Area -- the ACE trains that run between Stockton and San Jose and the Capital Corridor trains traveling between San Jose and Sacramento -- have been offering Wi-Fi connections for almost three years.

Patrick Flynn, a human resources manager who commutes between San Francisco and Berkeley on AC Transit two or three days a week, said he'd make use of the Internet service during his morning commute.

"I'd be able to get a jumpstart on my work," Flynn said. "By the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is get back on my laptop. I just want to look out the window and relax."

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.